Padres Place Rule 5 Pick Patrick Schuster On Waivers

The Padres have informed Rule 5 selection Patrick Schuster that he will not make the Opening Day roster, reports Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). This means that Schuster — whose rights were acquired from the Astros via trade — will be offered back to his former club, the Diamondbacks, if he clears waivers.

The 23-year-old lefty was the first overall choice in this year's Rule 5 draft. He has thrown eight spring innings for San Diego, putting up a 2.25 ERA and striking out three against one walk. Nevertheless, he has yet to see any regular-season action above the High-A level. Schuster posted strong numbers there last year with the Diamondbacks organization, throwing to a 1.83 ERA in 44 1/3 frames while striking out 9.1 per nine and walking 3.7 per nine.

With both Schuster and fellow southpaw Tony Sipp getting notice that they would not break camp, it appears that San Diego could start out with just one lefty in its bullpen.

They’re very deep and out of options on other guys as well. Writers must not be too familiar with the pads because they traded for Torres and Sipp has been lights out all spring in a LOOGY role. I think they should of kept him cause he did good but they didn’t want 3 lefties I guess in the pen or know they need make room for Erlin, Roach, and Wisler/Smith ASAP.

That’s a shame, Schuster pitched well in Spring. But he was signed at a time when we were looking for left-handed relief in order to fill the hole we left by trading away Joe Thatcher for Ian Kennedy. Since then, we have picked up Torres and Sipp. Torres is a lock for the official team lefty out of the bullpen, but so far Schuster has been a lot better for us than Sipp. I still say Schuster deserved a chance. This also means we got nothing in exchange for Anthony Bass. But he was probably going to get DFA’d anyway so it’s not that big of a loss.